Chief Hatori's frown deepened as he read Yamato's report. It had more holes in it than a sieve, and that annoyed him greatly. He knew what the holes meant; the man was hiding something. And as the new police chief over a fractured, hurting precinct, he didn't want mysteries. Then his frown deteriorated to a scowl when he read that there was a tattoo. The tattoo wasn't the problem. The freaking problem for him was the lack of description of the tattoo –the report sucked.

Even worse was the fact that he knew Yamato was an exceptional medical examiner. Chief Akimitsu had told him often, bragging about the medical examiner for his precinct, and the reminder of him broke his heart all over again. Akimitsu had been a good man and an incredible poolice chief. And it hurt that they had yet to find his remains in the rubble from the terror attack. Hatori knew the sad truth was that much of the ashes coating the city were probably human remains. He wondered if his peer and friend would ever be found.

And now he read the incomplete autopsy on the terrorist, Diamond. It left a hell of a lot to be desired as the facts and details went.

Fifteen minutes later, he walked in unannounced to the morgue, and Yamato looked up at him with nervous curiosity.

Chief Hatori demanded, "pull Diamond's drawer open." He held up a file of papers, "this report is crap!"

Yamato tried to quietly take a deep breath and did as he was ordered. He knew it was an awful report. He had hoped with everything going on that, no one would read it. The bad guy was very dead. Why go further?

Much to his frustration, the Chief went right for the tattoo. It was what had enabled Diamond to be on the receiving end of Emerald's human sacrifice spell. He hadn't figured out a reasonable explanation for that one yet.

"Well, double-shit," Hatori said. "That just made this a whole hell of a lot more complicated." He was looking directly at the tattoo.

He then flicked his eyes up to Yamato. "Turn off any recorder you might have on for taking notes and lock the damn door. I want a hell of a lot more information out of you if you're smart enough to know to hide this."

Yamato did as was asked and turned to look at the police chief. "What do you want to know, sir?"

"Why are you hiding the fact that Diamond had been an immortal?"

"Is that an order and on the record, Chief?"

"You damn well know it isn't."

"Then I don't know what you're talking about."

Hatori scowled again. He pointed at the middle of Diamond's back. "This tattoo is actually caused by a witch's spell. It makes it so the one with the mark can soak in the blood of the depraved and gain life from them. The problem is, I don't know how to actually kill an immortal. It's supposed to be damn near impossible."

Yamato blinked at his new Chief and tried to think quickly about what to say. He didn't want to expose anyone he was working with, especially not Artemis and Minako.

"Nothing to say?" Hatori prodded. "See, if you had put more in the report, I would have assumed you were unaware of the supernatural, but you're too good at your job to half-ass such an important death."

"I was kidnapped and threatened," he knew he couldn't say shot since he didn't have any bullet wounds left. "I didn't want facts to lead to whoever killed the monster."

"No, I call bull on that. The problem is the details you left out. Every one that you did could link to the fact that he was not really human."

"What leads you to-"

"Facts," Hatori said, interrupting. "The facts are he wasn't quite human, and damn, I had no clue until I saw that demented tattoo." The police chief banged his hand down on the metal slab. "You need to admit it! I won't put this in a report, and I will help you fix your half-assed one. It's obvious you're not used to hiding the fact that there are other things out there. Just work with me and not against me!"

"I refuse to give any names. I will admit I know what he was, but I won't tell you who told me." He set his jaw in defiance. He refused to implicate anyone other than himself.

Hatori glared at him. "I won't let that fact affect your job; only if you can convince me you aren't tangled up in this somehow. Why was the one person kidnapped, the only one who knows what Diamond really was? So many died!"

Yamato said, "horrible luck. Well, that and I work with so many different departments. I have a broad reach. If they knew how much I was aware of, they wouldn't have failed to kill me. Also, I think it's because I'm not trained to be careful. A cop would have known what to look for. I missed so many signs that someone was lying in wait for me."

"That doesn't explain why you."

"That's my point! I just happened to know the truth. Had Diamond been aware of that, he would have ordered things done differently."

"How did you really get away unscathed?"

Yamato knit his brow, "I didn't. I was shot. And dammit did it hurt. It broke my femur, and if he got off the next shot I would be dead. It was aimed at my head. Then suddenly he was dead."

"What!? How did he die?"

"I didn't recognize who did it. And I promise I can't detail anyone to a sketch artist."

"Lier," Hatori said with zero heat. "I bet you can, but I won't press. After all, I haven't explained my reasoning yet."

"And that is?" Yamato was so on edge that he gripped his hands in fight fists at his sides.

"Minako," he answered, looking for a response. When Yamato flinched, he smiled. "Don't worry. I know when she arrived in this country. She wasn't involved in Diamond's death. That said, I know what she is."

"And you think that is…?"

"A Vampire."

"No," Yamato responded to a skeptical-looking Hatori. "She's a policewoman and a very devoted one at that. If her heart beats or not, that isn't important. You can't just classify her as 'other'."

"Are you really implying I'm some kind of bigot? That's too funny to me. I'm glad she's a vampire. We need those who are stronger to come alongside the police force." Hatori shook his head. "I trust vampires.

"What you need to know is that my great-grandfather looks younger than me. My great-grandmother died in childbirth, giving him a son he adored. Three years later, he fell in love with a beautiful sweet woman, and they married. She helped raise my grandfather and he adored her. For five years they were blissfully happy together. Then when my grandfather was eight, he was kidnapped.

"Terrified and heartbroken, my great-grandfather vowed to save my grandfather. He did anything he could to find a lead since the police were baffled." Hatori was lost in the memory of hearing the story for the first time. "He went to every shrine, magic dealer, healer, shamen – every con artist for over a year. Then he found someone deep in the mountains who offered to help. He said he required a life in return. He was so desperate that he offered his own.

"That night, my great-grandfather died and became a vampire. His desperation to find his son fueled him and drove him half mad for a time. He found his son and ripped apart the people who had stolen him. They had lost their own child to sickness, and they had kidnapped another in his place.

"The killings had been so brutal that the authorities thought it had been a wild animal attack. The inside of the house was soaked with their blood, but he brought his son home to his wife. And then he disappeared for three years. It had taken him six months to get beyond his blood lust and then two and a half years longer to risk the rejection of his beloved wife and son. He was shocked when he was welcomed home with open arms.

"He was a faithful and devoted husband to the day his wife died in his arms of old age. And ever since then, he has watched over his family line, protecting us."

Yamato sat down stunned by the whole story. "How well do you know him?"

"He helped raise me, having a vampire in the family is handy for changing diapers in the middle of the night. I've been around him my whole life."

"It's strange to think this whole time you knew about vampires and… everything."

Hatori looked at him and smiled, "had I known you did too, I would have come to you sooner."

"How do you know about Diamond?"

"Shingo, my great-grandfather, had spent a year researching the supernatural and then had done a lot of investigations over the years after that. I hated to read anything as a child except books on vampires, witches, and the like. My mother initially objected until my reading and comprehension improved quickly. She caved because she wanted me to learn to read well."

Yamato said, "truly, that's interesting, but so what? What do you want from me?"

"Diamond is dead and I'm fucking thrilled. He had a sister and a brother though. I need help stopping those threats. I need you to talk to whoever your resource is and find out where they are."

"Emerald is dead," Yamato replied. "Sapphire was cohorst into everything he did. Now that Diamond is dead, he's free to be himself, and that seems like it means one of the good guys."

"What!? How? With that spell, it requires blood and-"

"Only Diamond was an immortal. Sapphire is…" Yamato paused. He didn't know how much to say. He didn't know if it was wise to give Hatori more information than he had on anything. He only had the man's word and a story that he trusted vampires.

There was a loud banging noise on the morgue door and Yamato said, "let me just see who this is. I'd hate to make anyone think something has happened to me after what all went down."

The moment he opened the door Artemis shoved his way in and locked the doors behind him.

Hatori turned to face Artemis. "We were having a private conversation."

"Vampires, witches, immortal, werewolves." Artemis said the words like it was a password to a very strange club. "I had Luna look into your background after you started showing such an interest in Yamato's report."

"How many laws did she break doing that?!" Hatori asked, scowling.

"A hell of a lot," Artemis said frankly. "She's one amazing woman." The pride he felt in her abilities was evident in his tone. "Now –back off of Yamato. He's one of the good guys."

"—Who writes incomplete reports," Hatori replied.

"It's not incomplete and you freaking know it. He didn't want to put out a bunch of red flags that would make the wrong people ask questions. Diamond did some horrible things, and so many won't stop until they have answers."

Hatori said, "I'm not asking him to write down everything. I just want to know the truth, and that can stay between us."

"No," Artemis answered. "You won't get them from Yamato." Hatori started to object and he said, "I know someone who wants to meet you and your great-grandfather —tomorrow night," he handed Hatori a piece of paper. "Here is the time and location."

Hatori opened it and laughed. "This is a joke, right? The meeting is at a kiddie arcade?!"

"No, not a joke, and they make great coffee there."

"And who are we meeting?"

Artemis chuckled, "a relative, a very distant one, but a relative nonetheless."